To put it simply, the entire series is built on the premise of not giving up and giving into despair, which enables it to take a more lucid and emotional approach, not unlike Sailor Moon. Despite the fact that Milk ruined a solid handful of episodes, the season is still enjoyable despite her presence; as for the concept of simply "never giving up," while it is excessively childish and ill thought-out in execution, still works; this is because the girls are able to form realistic characters that are generally believable, whether or not the tropes for their characters have been used already. Personally, I noticedon this rewatch that most enemies this season take the form of insects, though I couldn't find any plot-relevant correlation. The concept of despair works surprisingly well, due in part to the concept of Nozomi and her friends being forced to wear despair masks mid-season. This allowed the girls to achieve true pain and much later, form an intrinsic connection with Desperiah (who found herself dissatisfied with eternal life.) As for villains, Desperiah was somewhat lacking in presence; while she did have a large impact on the series from the background, she never truly took center stage as she should have and Kawarino ended up being a stand-in for the season's "big bad," even resurging after being defeated. I believe that Kawarino was also a fantastic villain, being manipulative and cutthroat in a way similar to Wiseman from Sailor Moon, or Gohyan from prior season Splash Star.
As for main characters, I believe that Nozomi, despite being somewhat "average", works well as a main character; her personality to encourage her friends to do their best is quite uplifting even if the character themself is not thoroughly enjoyable, while the others all perform their roles in the series well. I believe that Coco and Nuts, however, have the best development in the series, with Nuts needing to move on from his grief of accidentally allowing the Palmier Kingdom to be destroyed, only for Komachi to be the one who was able to help him the most. On the other hand, Coco's character development coincides with Nozomi, as Coco encourages her to always try her hardest to achieve her dreams. This encouragement ultimately leads Nozomi to pursue her own dream of becoming a teacher to help others feel the joy she felt when achieving her dreams, while Nozomi herself was able to pull Coco from the depths of despair after his kingdom was destroyed. Unfortunately, the character with the poorest development was Milk, as she was repeatedly disrespectful, offensive, and belittling to the Cures, particularly Nozomi, while receiving no comeuppance of her own. While she may improve in Yes 5 GoGo, in this season her character is egregious here, as she has no true outstanding moments this season to redeem herself, despite being given numerous opportunities within the show. I would like to conclude by rating this series an 8/10 on rewatch.